After six weeks of travelling it was about time to hit some beaches, and the sandy havens of Goa were just the trick.
We spent a few days in the northern town of Anjuna, where bars pumped out trace music all-day long, before travelling to the idyllic South Goa retreat of Agonda Beach (it only took FOUR buses).
Wake up. Breakfast in a beach-side restaurant. Laze on a lounger gazing across the peaceful beach, occasionally getting up to take on the battering waves and cool off in the clear sea.
Well, that was day one.
Day two, three, four, and five were spent very much not doing these things because I had contracted severe sunburn from day one's un-sun-creamed activities. (I thought it was cloudy.)
Despite my blistered skin, we could still enjoy the great food in Goa. Tandoori chicken and a garlic naan straight from the clay oven, washed down by a Kingfisher was a treat - especially as meat and alcohol is sparse up north.
(Although, steer clear from the Goan specialty of pork sorpatel - turns out to be pork offal in a near black curry sauce. Yuk.)
Next up was the state of Kerala, and Kochin. There wasn't much going on - apart from the cool Chinese fisher nets. The technique has been used since around AD 1400, but while most people have abandoned the method for more economical modern ways, the fishermen in Kochi persist.
It takes at least four men to haul up and down the bamboo poles carrying the large nets, which are dipped in and out of the sea at least 200 times a day.
You can even take your pick of the day's catch, which restaurants next to the promenade will cook for dins.
We stayed in the amazing Jasmin Homestay with the wonderfully kind Joycey, who cooked us up plenty of tasty Keralan breakfasts, mostly some kind of coconut dish.
We also spent a Friday evening watching some traditional Indian classical music - we were the only people in the whole theatre!! - involving some kind of Indian drum and a tambourine and an epic 20-minute duel.
We took a six-hour bus to the spectacular hill station of Munnar. The bus journey was incredible as we climbed up and up before breaking through the clouds to glimpse the glittering green of some of the 35,000 tea plantations, spread across one million acres of land.
We hired a tuk-tuk for a day trip to some of the main sightseeing spots and even saw two families of wild elephants just 100 metres away from the side of the road. Magical.
We also spent two nights in a guesthouse perched amongst the magnificent mountains, with fabulous mist-shrouded sunrise views. While that was nice, the LOTS AND LOTS of bugs was less so.
Another bus took us to Alleppey, where we did a boat tour down the pretty backwaters with Laura and Ben, another travelling couple also staying at the same guesthouse.
The tour included a tasty traditional Kerala dinner, and we even got a taste of the region's home-brewed alcohol - known as 'toddy'. It was utterly disgusting, and between four of us we couldn't drink more than 100ml. Luckily our boat driver was more than happy to take it off our hands.
We also saw lots of water wildlife, including kingfishers.
Wanting a proper beer to wash away the taste of toddy, we visited one of India's famed dingy beer parlours (the government is cracking down on alcohol sales in Kerala), where four more people from the boat trip had the same idea so we all sat and drank the evening away - with different types of Kingfishers.
It was also Diwali while we were in Alleppey. While the festival isn't celebrated as wildly in Kerala as elsewhere, our guesthouse arranged a little firework show which was cool, and involved catherine wheels being set off (but without the sticks, and instead whizzing in god knows which directions across the street).
We then spent three days in the southern beach town of Varkala, which had a great backpacker vibe, and some cracking restaurants along the clifftops. We also saw lots of eagles prowling above the palm tree-rich beaches.
The south felt a lot more easy going than our travels up north. But maybe we were just getting fully comfortable with the incredible country.
Although we've covered lots across the two months, there's more we would have liked to see - particularly the northern Himalayan towns.
Alas, after thousands of kilometres, 17 stops, 20 guesthouses, and 112 hours on trains, our time in India is up. The most crazy, dirtiest and in-your-face of places, that was stuffed full of beautiful locations.
Next up - Sri Lanka!
